Law School's Dwindling Appeal, Ticket Brokers at the Super Bowl, and Tina Fey

Behind the?New York Times?pay wall, you only get?10 free clicks?a month. For those worried about hitting their limit, we're taking a look through the paper each morning to find the stories that can make your clicks count.

RELATED: The Art Market, Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Enterprise, and the Coen Brothers

Top Stories:?Law school applications are dropping, and the "startling numbers have plunged law school administrations into soul-searching debate about the future of legal education and the profession over all."?

RELATED: Was the Brazilian Night Club Disaster Made Worse by Its Bar Tab Policy?

World:?Beijing takes measures to address "hazardous" smog, including "temporarily shutting down more than 100 factories and ordering one-third of government vehicles off the streets, according to official news reports."?

RELATED: North Korean Missiles, a Mastermind in Algeria, and Johansson Over Broadway

U.S.:?With cod depleted, fishery management officials vote to impose "drastic" cuts to the commercial harvest.?

RELATED: '30 Rock' Is Ending Next Year Says Alec Baldwin

New York:?The Newtown community offers emotional testimony in a local forum.?

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Technology:?Hackers from China have been infiltrating the Times ever since their?Wen Jiabao investigation ran in October.?

Health:?Two studies about malnutrition out of Malawi "reveal that severe malnutrition often involves more than a lack of food, and that feeding alone may not cure it."?

Sports:?Ticket brokers' cash-heavy Super Bowl ticket sales operation. ?

Opinion:?The nightclub fire in Brazil "has, like other tragedies, revealed the best and the worst of Brazilian society," according to?Ant?nio Xerxenesky.

Television:?Alessandra Stanley writes that Tina Fey, upon the ending of?30 Rock, leaves primetime the way she entered it, "as a sly observer who bites the network that feeds her so much material."?

Fashion & Style:?As New York Fashion Week approaches, the fashion world is in high panic mode over the flu and other illness, apparently.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/law-schools-dwindling-appeal-ticket-brokers-super-bowl-142547214.html

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Texas City: Marathon on track to take over BP refinery on Friday

by T. J. Aulds/ The Daily News

khou.com

Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:48 AM

TEXAS CITY ? This likely marks the final week that the 475,000-barrel-per-day refinery at 2401 Fifth Ave. South will operate under the BP name. Marathon Petroleum, which purchased the nation?s fourth largest refinery as part of a $2.5 billion deal, is scheduled to take over the 1,200-acre refinery on Friday.

The two companies are expected to finalize the sale of the refinery this week.

Once the deal is closed, Marathon will own two refineries in Texas City ? its existing 80,000-barrel-per-day refinery and BP?s 475,000-barrel-per-day facility.

The new acquisition will be called Marathon Galveston Bay Refinery.

Marathon?s take over ends 14 years of BP?s ownership of the refinery, which it acquired in a merger with Amoco Oil in 1998.

Ray Brooks, who will be the manager of Marathon?s new acquisition, set up his management team; many already are top managers at the Texas City refinery.

Click here to read more at the Galveston County Daily News.

Source: http://www.khou.com/news/neighborhood-news/Texas-City--Marathon-on-track-to-take-over-BP-refinery-on-Friday-188680021.html

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RIM to debut new BlackBerry smartphones in a heavily hyped unveiling

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Following several delays and much anticipation, the new BlackBerry smartphones will be unveiled this morning in New York.

Research In Motion (TSX:RIM), the company behind the once dominant smartphones, is holding a splashy event in Manhattan to usher in the new devices, which were originally due for release last year.

The debut is expected to showcase the device as well as provide key launch details.

That will likely include its release date, which is expected in the next four to six weeks, the phone's features and how much it will cost.

The company says the new BlackBerry will be released first in a touchscreen version, while a keypad alternative will follow in the weeks or months afterward.

The new phone launch is RIM's attempt to regain its position in the highly competitive North American and European smartphone markets, which are now dominated by iPhone and Android devices.

While the first hurdles to overcome are the opinions of tech analysts and investor reaction, the true measure of success ? actual sales of the phones ? is still weeks away.

The BlackBerry has dramatically lost marketshare in recent years after a series of blunders.

Several network outages left customers without the use of the smartphones they had come to rely on, while the BlackBerry's hardware hasn't received a significant upgrade in years.

RIM chief executive Thorsten Heins has already offered a glimpse of some features on the new devices. They include BlackBerry Balance technology, which allows one phone to operate as both a business and personal device entirely separate from each other.

The new BlackBerry will also let users seamlessly shift between the phone's applications like they're flipping between pages on a desk.

In the coming weeks, RIM will launch an advertising blitz to promote the phones, including aggressive social media campaigning, which includes plugs from celebrities on their Twitter accounts, and a 30-second advertisement on the Super Bowl, the most watched television program of the year.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rim-debut-blackberry-smartphones-heavily-hyped-unveiling-090741528.html

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Salmonella Outbreak Blamed for 16 Illnesses in 5 States

At least 16 people in five different states have fallen ill with salmonella. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the Associated Press and other media outlets on Monday that the salmonella has been linked to ground beef sold by two different Michigan businesses.

The businesses in question, Gab Halal Foods and Jouni Meats, are both located in the Metro Detroit area. Both businesses issued recalls for a combined total of more than 1,000 pounds of ground beef late last week.

Here is some of the key information that has emerged about the salmonella outbreak as of Monday.

* Gab Halal Foods, which is located in Troy, Mich., issued a recall for "approximately 550 pounds" of ground beef that had been sold through its facility. The beef in question had been produced between Dec. 4 and Dec. 10 of last year.

* Jouni Meats, which is located in Sterling Heights, Mich., had actually issued its recall first, for 500 pounds of ground beef that had been produced at its facility between Dec. 4 and Dec. 9 of last year.

* The majority of salmonella cases have been reported in Michigan, with at least seven cases stemming from the exact same restaurant, where patrons had reportedly consumed raw kibbeh.

* According to reports by Reuters and other media outlets on Monday, nine of the 16 people that have fallen ill with salmonella are from Michigan, while an additional three cases have been identified in Wisconsin, two in Illinois, and one each in Arizona and Iowa.

* No deaths have been reported so far, but at least half of those that have fallen ill with the strain of salmonella linked to the two Michigan businesses have had to be hospitalized.

* Jouni Meats and Gab Halal Foods are individually owned by a pair of brothers. The owner of Jouni Meats, Khalil Jouni, told Reuters on Monday that he believed that the meat may have been tainted elsewhere, as his facility distributed beef to many other local businesses without any report of further illnesses.

* As the Detroit Free Press noted on Monday, salmonella can affect people of all ages. Those affected so far range in age from 2 to 87 years of age. Young children and seniors are likely to be hit harder by the disease than others.

* Various media outlets have noted that this particular strain of salmonella, known as salmonella Typhimurium, is fairly rare in and of itself. More specifically, according to a report by NBC News, the "genetic fingerprint" of this strain has been "rarely seen previously."

* A person who becomes ill with salmonella typically suffers from abdominal pain, diarrhea, and fever, all of which manifest themselves within 12-72 hours "after infection," as noted by the Detroit Free Press.

Vanessa Evans is a musician and freelance writer based in Michigan, with a lifelong interest in health and nutrition issues.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/salmonella-outbreak-blamed-16-illnesses-5-states-223300634.html

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500px Is Back in the App Store After All the Porn Bullshit

Holy crap, boobs! Apple last week excommunicated 500px, a photo-sharing app, from the App Store because apparently it made it too easy for people to find nudie pics. Looks like it's been cleansed and baptized, though, because Apple has welcomed 500px back into the fold. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/-Afsdwu7CAQ/500px-is-back-in-the-app-store-after-all-the-porn-bullshit

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Obama's Republican Transportation Secretary is stepping down (Washington Bureau)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/280675374?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Wings UK Wins at Annual Business Travel Awards | http://www ...

Wings Travel Management was named Best Travel Management Company, less than ?50 million UK annual sales, at the Business Travel Awards in London on 21 January 2013.

In presenting the award, judges cited Wings? impressive Incident-Free Index?, which tracks the performance of all service and supplier transactions, and its outstanding corporate social responsibility programme as setting it apart from the competition.

?Winning the award means a tremendous amount to us,? said Paul East, chief operating officer of Wings. ?The endorsement from the judges gives us the added confidence that we are growing in the right direction, which is important because we are growing fast.?

Wings provides seamless travel management across the globe using a standardised state-of-the-art technology throughout its worldwide operations. Through its ability to provide timely, accurate reporting, Wings identifies the challenges within a travel programme and customises a plan that is specific to each client.

Part of its reporting ability includes the Incident-Free Index? (or IFI), which identifies for clients where the problems or incidents happen along the travel experience. It tracks all of the suppliers ? hotel, transportation, airline, TMC. Because this is part of Wings? everyday management, and it expects the best from suppliers, too, the clients reap the benefit. Wings has a 99.62-percent rate of incident-free travel with its clients.

?For all of us at Wings, travel management is our passion, and we will continue to strive to be the trusted travel advisor that service-critical businesses turn to for help navigating and simplifying their travel programmes,? East said.

Wings Travel Management specialises in oil and gas, marine and corporate travel, with wholly managed operations in Europe, Africa, the Americas and the Middle East.

Source: http://www.wings.travel/news/wings-uk-wins-annual-business-travel-awards/

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After gun crime, weapon history takes time to find

WASHINGTON (AP) ? In the fictional world of television police dramas, a few quick clicks on a computer lead investigators to the owner of a gun recovered at a bloody crime scene. Before the first commercial, the TV detectives are on the trail of the suspect.

Reality is a world away. There is no national database of guns. Not of who owns them, how many are sold annually or even how many exist.

Federal law bars the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from keeping track of guns. The only time the government can track the history of a gun, including its first buyer and seller, is after it's used in a crime. And though President Barack Obama and numerous Democratic lawmakers have called for new limits on what kinds of guns should be available to the public and urged stronger background checks in gun sales, there is no effort afoot to change the way the government keeps track ? or doesn't ? of where the country's guns are.

When police want to trace a gun, it's a decidedly low-tech process.

"It's not CSI and it's not a sophisticated computer system," said Charles J. Houser, who runs the ATF's National Tracing Center in Martinsburg, W. Va.

When police trace a gun, the search starts by sending all the information they have about the gun ? including the manufacturer and model ? to an office worker in a low-slung brick building just off the Appalachian Trial in rural West Virginia, about 90 miles northwest of Washington.

ATF officials first call the manufacturer, who reveals which wholesaler the company used. That may lead to a call to a second distributor before investigators can pinpoint the retail gun dealer who first sold the weapon. Gun dealers are required to keep a copy of federal forms that detail who buys what gun and a log for guns sold. They are required to share that information with the ATF if a gun turns up at a crime scene and authorities want it traced. Often, gun shops fax the paperwork to the ATF.

That's where the paper trail ends.

In about 30 percent of cases, one or all of those folks have gone out of business and ATF tracers are left to sort through potentially thousands of out-of-business records forwarded to the ATF and stored at the office building that more closely resembles a remote call center than a law enforcement operation.

The records are stored as digital pictures that can only be searched one image at a time. Two shifts of contractors spend their days taking staples out of papers, sorting through thousands of pages and scanning or taking pictures of the records.

"Those records come in all different shapes and forms. We have to digitally image them, we literally take a picture of it," Houser said. "We have had rolls of toilet paper or paper towels ... because they (dealers) did not like the requirement to keep records."

The tracing center receives about a million out-of-business records every month and Houser runs the center's sorting and imaging operations from 6 a.m. to midnight, five days a week. The images are stored on old-school microfilm reels or as digital images. But there's no way to search the records, other than to scroll through one picture of a page at a time.

"We are ... prohibited from amassing the records of active dealers," Houser said. "It means that if a dealer is in business he maintains his records."

Last year the center traced about 344,000 guns for 6,000 different law enforcement agencies. Houser has a success rate of about 90 percent, so long as enough information is provided. And he boasts that every successful trace provides at least one lead in a criminal case.

"It's a factory for the production of investigative leads," Houser said of the tracing center.

A 1968 overhaul of federal gun laws required licensed dealers to keep paper records of who buys what guns and gave ATF the authority to track the history of a gun if was used in a crime. But in the intervening decades, the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups lobbied Congress to limit the government's ability to do much with what little information is collected, including keeping track on computers.

"They (lawmakers) feel that the act of amassing those records would in essence go a step toward creating an artificial registration system," Houser said.

What the ATF can do is give trace information to the law enforcement agency that asked for it and in some cases uses the data to help point them in the direction of other crimes.

Houser said the "manually intensive process" can take about five days for a routine trace. In some cases, completing the trace can mean sifting by hand through paperwork that hasn't yet been scanned.

In more urgent situations, including the immediate aftermath of a mass shooting in Connecticut last year, ATF agents run a trace within about 24 hours. Oftentimes, that involves sending agents to the gun dealer that first sold the weapon to quickly find the paperwork listing its original buyer.

Despite having access to millions of records about gun purchases from dealers that have gone out of business, the ATF isn't allowed to create a database of what guns were sold to whom and when.

ATF does keep tabs on how many guns are manufactured and shipped out of the country every year, but only gun makers and dealers know for sure how many are sold. There are also strict limits on what the agency can do with the gun trace information. And that's just the way the gun lobby and Congress want it.

Various laws and spending bills have specifically barred the ATF from creating a national database of guns and gun owners. And due to the efforts of lawmakers, including former Rep. Todd Tiahrt of Kansas, ATF agents who trace the history of a gun can't share that information with anyone but the police agency that asked for it.

As it stands now, local law enforcement doesn't have access to regional data about gun traces. So if the police commissioner in New York City is trying to figure out where the guns are coming into the city from ? whether they're going to New Jersey first or upstate New York, for example ? that data is not available because of an amendment introduced by Tiahrt, said Mike Bouchard, a former ATF assistant director for Field Operations. ATF can tell police where most crime guns are traced from, by state. But it does not release information on gun shops or purchasers.

If police chiefs want that, they have to reach out to individual chiefs at other departments and ask.

"It's pretty ridiculous when we have an automated system that will do it for the chiefs," Bouchard said.

Tiahrt said he first proposed limiting access to trace data to make sure the information wasn't available under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. It was an issue of keeping undercover police, informants and innocent gun buyers and sellers out of the public eye, Tiahrt said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Knowing who legally buys guns won't prevent gun violence, the former Republican congressman said.

"We're chasing these wisps of smoke that won't solve the problem," Tiahrt said. "Get to the root cause. Put out the fire. Deal with mental illness. Deal with situational awareness."

Houser said he would prefer the tracing center's operations to be expanded and a center built that would use some technologies to help more easily trace a gun. But until the law changes, his staff will continue removing staples, turning pages right-side-up and taking digital pictures of records.

"Our job is to enforce the laws that are passed to us," Houser said. "What they give us is what we are required to work with."

___

Associated Press reporter Eileen Sullivan contributed to this report.

___

Follow Alicia A. Caldwell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/acaldwellap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-29-Tracing%20Guns/id-c61060a636994437afffebb3026faae8

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Violence flares at Dominican opposition party office, eight injured

SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - At least eight people were injured, mostly by gunfire, during a dispute between rival factions competing for control of the Dominican Republic's leading opposition party, officials said on Sunday.

The incident occurred at the headquarters of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) in the capital, Santo Domingo, in the wake of a party decision to expel former President Hipolito Mejia and three other senior members from its ranks.

Police intervened after a confrontation between Mejia supporters and security guards at the offices, according to witnesses and authorities. At least six of the wounded were wounded by gunfire and were hospitalized, officials said.

Supporters of Mejia occupied the party offices for several hours until police persuaded them to leave.

The meeting was convened by PRD President Miguel Vargas Maldonado on the eve of a planned gathering of the party's leadership to confirm a January 14 decision to oust Mejia and Chairman Andres Bautista, on charges of violating party statutes.

Vargas Maldonado has held control of the PRD offices since the outbreak of an internal rift in the party following Mejia's loss to President Danilo Medina of the ruling Dominican Liberation Party in presidential elections last May.

Mejia served as president from 2000 to 2004 and left office in the wake of a deep economic crisis set off by a major banking scandal that rocked the country's economy.

Last week, at the request of Vargas Maldonado, police erected protective fences around the building.

Vargas Maldonado condemned the violence and warned the party would take legal action against Mejia and his supporters.

(Reporting by Manuel Jimenez, Writing by David Adams,; Editing by Kevin Gray and Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/violence-flares-dominican-opposition-party-office-eight-injured-233207150.html

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Three killed, many hurt at funerals in Egypt port city

CAIRO (Reuters) - Three people were shot dead and hundreds were injured in Egypt's Port Said on Sunday during the funerals of 33 protesters killed at the weekend, part of a wave of violence piling pressure on Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

State television said Mursi would address the nation later on Sunday. Forty-five people have been killed in demonstrations around the country since Thursday and his opponents have called for more protests on Monday.

Port Said's head of hospitals, Abdel Rahman Farag, told Reuters an 18-year-old man and two other people died from gunshot wounds on Sunday. More than 416 people suffered from teargas inhalation, while 17 were wounded by gunshots, he said.

As coffins were carried through the streets earlier, some in the crowd chanted for revenge or shouted anti-Mursi slogans. "Our soul and blood, we sacrifice to Port Said," they said.

Gunshots had killed many of the 33 who died on Saturday when residents went on the rampage after a court sentenced 21 people, mostly from the Mediterranean port, to death for their role in deadly soccer violence at a stadium there last year.

A military source said many people in Port Said, which lies next to the increasingly lawless Sinai Peninsula, possess guns. But it was not clear who was behind the deaths and injuries.

In Cairo, police fired teargas at dozens of stone-throwing protesters in a fourth day of clashes over what demonstrators there and in other cities say is a power grab by Islamists two years after Hosni Mubarak was overthrown.

The protesters accuse Mursi, elected in June with the support of his Muslim Brotherhood group, of betraying the democratic goals of the revolution. Most of the deaths since Thursday were in Port Said and Suez, both cities where the army has now been deployed.

The violence adds to the daunting task facing Mursi as he tries to fix a beleaguered economy and cool tempers before a parliamentary election expected in the next few months which is supposed to cement Egypt's transition to democracy.

It has exposed a deep rift in the nation. Liberals and other opponents accuse Mursi of failing to deliver on economic promises and say he has not lived up to pledges to represent all Egyptians. His backers say the opposition is seeking to topple Egypt's first freely elected leader by undemocratic means.

Although Sunday's violence was less severe than the previous two days, Mursi may have little respite. The opposition Popular Current and other groups have called for more protests on Monday to mark what was one of the bloodiest days of the 2011 uprising.

The Popular Current, led by leftist Hamdeen Sabahy, said it "denounces the state of silence of the presidency and the government during the sad events that the country went through the past 48 hours".

"BLOOD BEING SPILT"

On a bridge close to Tahrir Square, youths hurled stones at police in riot gear who fired teargas to push them back towards the square, the cauldron of the uprising that erupted on January 25, 2011 and toppled Mubarak 18 days later.

"None of the revolution's goals have been realized," said Mohamed Sami, a protester in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Sunday.

"Prices are going up. The blood of Egyptians is being spilt in the streets because of neglect and corruption and because the Muslim Brotherhood is ruling Egypt for their own interests."

Clashes also erupted in other streets near the square. The U.S. and British embassies, both close to Tahrir, said they were closed for public business on Sunday, normally a working day.

The army, Egypt's interim ruler until Mursi's election, was sent back onto the streets to restore order in Port Said and Suez, which both lie on the Suez canal. In Suez, at least eight people were killed in clashes with police.

Egypt's defense minister who also heads the army, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, called for the nation to stand together and said the military would not prevent peaceful protests. But he called on demonstrators to protect public property.

Many ordinary Egyptians are frustrated by the regular escalations that have hurt the economy and their livelihoods.

"They are not revolutionaries protesting," said taxi driver Kamal Hassan, 30, referring to those gathered in Tahrir. "They are thugs destroying the country."

CALL FOR DIALOGUE

The National Defence Council, headed by Mursi, called on Saturday for national dialogue to discuss political differences.

That offer has been cautiously welcomed by the opposition National Salvation Front. But the coalition has demanded a clear agenda and guarantees that any agreements will be implemented.

The Front, formed late last year when Mursi provoked protests and violence by expanding his powers and driving through an Islamist-tinged constitution, has threatened to boycott the parliamentary poll and call for more protests if its demands are not met, including for an early presidential vote.

Egypt's transition has been blighted from the outset by political rows and turbulence on the streets that have driven investors out and kept many tourists away. Its currency, the pound, has steadily weakened against the dollar.

The Port Said clashes erupted after a judge sentenced 21 men to death for involvement in 74 deaths at a soccer match on February 1, 2012 between Cairo's Al Ahly club and the local al-Masri team. Many of the victims were fans of the visiting team.

There were 73 defendants in the case. Those not sentenced on Saturday will face a verdict on March 9, the judge said.

Al Ahly fans cheered the verdict after threatening action if the death penalty was not meted out. But Port Said residents were furious that people from their city were held responsible.

(Additional reporting by Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/riots-over-egyptian-death-sentences-kill-least-32-005245042.html

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Debt limit extension bill passes House

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a Republican plan to allow the federal government to keep borrowing money through mid-May, clearing it for fast enactment after the top Senate Democrat and White House endorsed it.

The vote in the Republican-controlled House was 285-144, with no votes coming from 33 Republicans and 111 Democrats.

The measure avoids for the time being a repeat of the 2011 debt ceiling standoff that rattled markets and resulted in a downgrade of the government's triple-A credit rating. The Treasury is expected to exhaust remaining capacity under the $16.4 trillion debt limit between mid-February and early March.

The House vote marked a sharp departure from Republican vows to use the debt ceiling issue as a way to extract spending cuts from President Barack Obama.

But House Speaker John Boehner warned immediately after Wednesday's vote that Republicans would take the next opportunity - automatic budget cuts set for March - to demand "reforms" from Obama.

The automatic cuts, which were temporarily set aside earlier this month in a fiscal deal between the White House and Congress, are "going to go into effect" unless Obama makes concessions, Boehner said.

The bill aims to draw Senate Democrats into the debate by requiring both chambers to pass a formal budget resolution by April 15. If either the House or Senate fails to meet this deadline, lawmakers' pay is suspended until they pass a budget.

Republicans have named the bill the "No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Democratic-controlled Senate would take up the bill and pass it without changes. He and other top Senate Democrats praised the Republican plan for not requiring spending cuts to match the increase in borrowing authority.

Both Reid and President Barack Obama have called for a "clean" debt limit increase. The White House said on Tuesday that Obama would not stand in the way of the bill if it was passed by Congress.

"This proposal gives us something we can work with here in the Senate," added Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat.

Republicans backed the bill in the face of polls showing Americans blaming them, rather than Democrats, for the uncertainty surrounding the so-called "fiscal cliff" that was resolved around New Year's Day by raising taxes on the wealthy.

House Democrats who voted against the bill complained that it was a politically motivated gimmick that created a new "fiscal cliff" in the spring.

BREATHING SPACE

The bill avoids an immediate threat of U.S. default by suspending limits on the government's ability to borrow until May 19. It does not specify a dollar amount for debt ceiling increase, but allows borrowing as needed to meet federal obligations that must be paid by that date.

Congress would then have to agree on a new, longer-term debt ceiling increase around that time - a deal that would not likely come without a more comprehensive deficit reduction plan.

Boehner, who unveiled the short term extension plan last week, said he and fellow House Republicans were committed to passing a budget that would be balanced in 10 years.

According to budget experts, achieving such a goal, especially in the absence of additional tax hikes, would require massive cuts in federal spending beyond any envisioned in previous Republican-backed budgets or in the deficit-reduction plans of panels such as the bi-partisan Bowles-Simpson commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

The government is currently on track for its fifth straight fiscal year with a deficit exceeding $1 trillion - a trajectory widely viewed as eventually leading to a debt downgrade.

"My goodness, we ought to be able to balance the budget over the next 10 years," Boehner said on the House floor.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, who was the Republican vice presidential nominee in the 2012 election, said the measure was aimed at prompting a robust debate in Congress over how to achieve a more sustainable fiscal path.

"We see this as a very defining moment for this session of Congress and our caucus on getting a down payment on the debt crisis, on averting it," Ryan said at a media breakfast sponsored by the Wall Street Journal.

But House Democrats objected, saying it was irresponsible to set short-term debt limit deadlines that would keep a cloud of uncertainty hanging over financial markets and cause volatility and higher interest rates.

"This legislation sets up another fiscal cliff, another financial nightmare, another problem for the American people that we should avoid," said Representative Rob Andrews, a Democrat from New Jersey.

Representative Sander Levin, the senior Democrat on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, told reporters: "We should not continue to have this sword of default over the heads of Congress and the American economy."

SEQUESTER SHOWDOWN

The vote shifted the budget debate to the March 1 start of automatic spending cuts for military and domestic programs, and the March 27 expiration of funding needed to keep federal agencies operating.

Ryan said he believed that the automatic cuts, known as a sequester, would likely proceed without changes, because no alternatives have been advanced by Senate Democrats or the Obama administration.

The House last year passed two bills to replace the sequester cuts for fiscal 2013, sparing any reductions for military programs, while shifting more of the cuts onto many domestic programs aimed at aiding the poor, including the Medicaid healthcare program and social services block grants.

After the "fiscal cliff" deal, signed by Obama on January 2, raised taxes on the wealthy and delayed the start of automatic cuts, Congress faces about $85 billion in cuts for the remainder of fiscal 2013, which ends on April 14.

The budget plans that the legislation aims to enforce would set discretionary spending levels for fiscal 2014, which starts on October 1.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro and Richard Cowan; Editing by Fred Barbash and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/debt-limit-extension-bill-moves-vote-house-165507643--business.html

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The Radiation Warnings You Won't Get from the Mainstream ...

Radiation update provided by Daisy Luther and?co-author NinaO. This report was originally published at?Inalienably Yours.

The mainstream media and the federal government?will soon have the blood of the world on it?s hands.

Radiation from the Fukushima Nuclear Plant disaster in Japan is now actively in the ecosystem all along the North American west coast? even the sea weed is now radiated.? The?Vancouver Sun?reported one year ago that the seaweed tested from waters off the coast of British Columbia were 4 times the amount considered safe.? No further test results were released after the initial report.

The governments of the United States and Canada are not conducting tests for radioactivity ? at least not to the knowledge of the public.? Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has agreed to continue purchasing?seafood from Japan, despite the fact that the?food is not being tested for radioactive contamination.? Last November, independent testing in Japan showed 65 per cent of the catches tested positive for cesium (a radioactive material).? Instead of refusing to purchase the poisoned fish, food safety agencies in both the United States and Canada have simply raised the ?acceptable level of radiation.?? We can?t go offending the Japanese after promising to buy their tainted goods, now can we?

After the North American governments refused to fund testing, oceanographer Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the non-profit Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass, along with Nicholas Fisher, a marine sciences professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and other concerned scientists, managed to secure private funding for a Pacific research voyage.? The results?

Cesium levels in the Pacific had initially gone up an astonishing 45 million times above pre-accident levels. The levels then declined rapidly for a while, but after that, they unexpectedly levelled off.

In July, cesium levels stopped declining and remained stuck at 10,000 times above pre-accident levels.

This means the ocean isn?t diluting the radiation as expected. If it had been, cesium levels would have kept falling.

The finding suggests that?radiation is still being released into the ocean long after the accident in March, 2011.

Less than two weeks after the tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster, Michael Kane, an investigative journalist,?reported, ?In the wake of the continuing nuclear tragedy in Japan, the United States government is still moving quickly to increase the amounts of radiation the population can ?safely? absorb by raising the safe zone for exposure to levels designed to protect the government and nuclear industry more than human life.?

The radiation has absolutely reached the shores of North America.? Water samples from across the continent have tested positive for unsafe levels of radioactivity.??The levels exceeded federal drinking water thresholds, known as maximum contaminant levels, or MCL, by as much as 181 times.?This means that the?complete ecosystem of the Pacific Ocean is now poisoned with radiation and we aren?t being warned.

Samples of milk taken across the United States have shown?radiation at levels 2000 percent higher than EPA maximums.??The reason that milk is so significant is that it it representative of the entire food supply.? According to an article published on?Natural News, ?Cows consume grass and are exposed to the same elements as food crops and water supplies. In other words, when cows? milk starts testing positive for high levels of radioactive elements, this is indicative of?radioactive contamination of the entire food supply.?

The?GMO?Food and Drug?Pushers?Administration and the EnvironmentalDeception?Protection Agency, instead of refusing to prohibit the sale of tainted foods and mandatory testing of foods produced and harvested from the Pacific Coast, have simply raised the??acceptable levels?? of radioactive material in foods.

Clearly, the ?it?s-all-for-your-own-good? government will not protect us, or even inform us of the dangers so we can protect ourselves, because it might dip into the pockets of the global elite, the nuclear energy industry, and the food industries.? There is big money behind this cover-up. Refusing to purchase and consume their tainted goods is the best way to fight back, while keeping our families safe and healthy.

How can we protect ourselves? First, be aware of what items are likely to be highly tainted.

1.)??SEAFOOD:? Question the origin of ALL seafood.? Fish and crustaceans from the Pacific?Ocean should all be considered to be?poisoned with radiation.

2.)??WATER:? The rainfall and snowfall are all radiated.??Do not drink any water that has not been filtered.?? The tap water that flows from your faucet has NOT been treated to rid it of radioactive particles. A recent report from?the?NY Times?stated, ?A rooftop water monitoring program managed by UC Berkeley?s Department of Nuclear Engineering detected substantial spikes in rain-borne iodine-131 during torrential downpours??

3.)?DAIRY PRODUCTS:? Milk and milk products from the West Coast states currently have the highest levels of radiation in North America.

4.)??PRODUCE:??Leafy Vegetables, Wines, Tomatoes, Strawberries?.all produce from California or any other West Coast State are also likely to be tainted.

5.)??MEAT:? If a animal eats any leafy vegetable all along the West Coast, that animal has consumed radiation, and is poisoned.? This is any animal from cows, pigs, goats, sheep to wild deer and other game.

If you eat the above foods from areas with high radiation levels, you are eating radiation and feeding it to your children. Slowly the radiation levels within your body will build up.??This is PERMANENT.

Infant mortality rates across the United States have increased by more than 35% since the nuclear disaster, according to a court statement by Dr. with independent scientist Leuren Moret, MA, PhD.? A study published in?The International Journal of Medicine?indicates that more than 20,000 deaths right here in North America can be directly attributed to the release of radioactive material from Fukushima.

Radioactive isotopes of the type released from Fukushima have a half life of 30,000 years.? This means that we must permanently change the way we prepare our food.

Source: http://www.pakalertpress.com/2013/01/24/the-radiation-warnings-you-wont-get-from-the-mainstream-propaganda-machine/

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At $1,018*, The Surface Pro Is Priced Just Right

The outcry is deafening. "The Surface Pro is priced too high!" "I'll just get a MacBook Air!" "Microsoft is the next RIM!" "I LOVE APPLES!" Ignore the noise and look at the situation. The Surface Pro is priced just right. For its size and form, the Surface Pro is a powerhouse computing platform and priced to sell. It might not outsell the MacBook Air but that's okay.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/hznBWnP5D9c/

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AAA Mich.: Gas prices rise 12 cents from last week

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- AAA Michigan says gasoline prices have risen 12.3 cents during the past week to a statewide average of about $3.37 per gallon.

The auto club said Tuesday the average is about three cents per gallon less than last year at this time.

Of the Michigan cities it surveys, AAA Michigan said the cheapest price for self-serve unleaded fuel is in the Detroit area, where it's about $3.33 a gallon. The highest average is in the Flint area at about $3.43.

Dearborn-based AAA Michigan surveys 2,800 Michigan gas stations daily.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/aaa-mich-gas-prices-rise-165209536.html

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Union membership falls to lowest percentage in 76 years

(Reuters) - The percentage of workers belonging to unions tumbled to 11.3 percent in 2012, the lowest percentage in 76 years, led by dramatic declines in states where lawmakers have put organized labor in the political crosshairs, government figures showed on Wednesday.

The total number of union members fell by nearly 400,000, from 11.8 percent of the workforce in 2011, the Labor Department report on union membership said. The rate of 11.3 percent of the workforce was the lowest since 1936, when Franklin Roosevelt was president.

Almost half the losses in the last year were in the industrial Midwest -- Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan -- where states with Republican-led governments have led an assault on unions.

Indiana passed a so-called "right-to-work" law in February, 2012 making payment of union dues voluntary for workers. Wisconsin passed severe restrictions on public sector unions in 2011, but they were blocked by the courts for part of 2012.

Ohio also passed curbs on public sector unions in 2011, but they were overturned by referendum the same year. Michigan last month passed a right-to-work law that has not yet taken effect.

Robert Bruno, professor of labor relations at the University of Illinois, said a growing number of laws that make organizing workers more difficult were part of the reason for "an incremental erosion" of the labor movement.

"It goes back a couple of decades, that there has been a growing number of anti-labor policies," Bruno said. "We have the weakest labor law and enforcement of labor law in the entire Western industrialized world," he said.

Some of the most brutal fights over collective bargaining have taken place at the state level. A federal appeals court last Friday upheld a controversial Wisconsin law restricting the power of public-sector unions.

Last year, organized labor also suffered big membership losses in states considered union strongholds and controlled by Democrats, including Illinois and New York. Lawmakers grappling with public employee pension crises and sharp drops in tax revenue have sought concessions from public workers.

"It reflects a number of things beyond labor's control, such as the state of the economy," said Harley Shaiken, labor relations professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

"It used to be big labor and big business. Now we have small labor and big business," he said.

On the other hand, unions made strong gains in traditionally weak states for organized labor, including Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma and even Texas, due to booming local economies.

Some analysts blame unions for the drop. Membership has been falling since 2008, when it was 16.1 million, or 12.4 percent of the workforce, federal data shows. It peaked in 1954, when 28.3 percent of workers were represented by organized labor.

"They must now admit that they are not investing enough staff and funds in organizing and not embarking on an imaginative journey to rediscover the relevancy of unions," said Gary Chaison, professor of industrial relations at Clark University. "Essentially, workers are feeling tremendous job insecurity ... Yet as today's figures suggest, workers are not turning to unions to act as their voice."

The report also showed full-time unionized workers had median weekly earnings of $943, 27 percent more than the $742 of those whose pay was not collectively bargained.

The activist group Center for Union Facts, which is critical of the labor movement, said unions have made salary and benefit demands that have hurt the budgets of corporations and the public sector.

SLOW RECOVERY

Slow recovery from the 2007-09 recession has hurt revenues of state and local governments, forcing them to eliminate jobs and to cover the swelling costs of healthcare and pensions by cutting spending in other areas.

"It's not a secret that some politicians chose to cut public education funding, balance the budgets on the backs of students and slash the education workforce," Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, a 3 million member union, said in a statement on the report.

In 2012, public sector unions lost 234,000 members. Nearly 80 percent of that decline was in organizations representing local government workers, primarily teachers. More than a third, 35.9 percent, of public-sector workers belonged to unions, compared with just 6.6 percent of those in the private sector.

From December 2007, near the start of the recession, to December 2012, state and local governments shed 489,000 jobs.

"That's a highly unionized sector and we know the public sector has been doing poorly in this recovery," said William Briggs, chief economist for the largest U.S. union, the AFL-CIO, and former undersecretary at the U.S. Labor Department. "The weakness isn't just a union story. It's a story about the economy not functioning the way we hope it would."

He noted the age group with the lowest membership rate - only 4.2 percent for workers aged 16 to 24, compared with 14.9 percent for those aged 55 to 64 - was also the one struggling most to find full-time jobs.

Black workers had the highest union membership rate, at 13.4 percent, followed by whites at 11.1 percent, Hispanics at 9.8 percent and Asians at 9.6 percent. Black men alone had a rate of 14.8 percent, as African-American women mostly hold public jobs, Briggs said.

Women made up 57 percent of the public sector workforce in 2012 and accounted for 72 percent of the union membership decline, the National Women's Law Center said.

(Reporting By James B. Kelleher in Chicago, Lisa Lambert in Washington and Bernie Woodall in Detroit; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/union-membership-falls-lowest-percentage-76-years-002638280--business.html

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Groupon suspends all gun-related daily deals

Courtesy Michael Cargill

Gun-store owner Michael Cargill, pictured here giving a gun safety speech in July 2012, is calling for a boycott of Groupon after the company canceled his concealed-handgun-license class promotion.

By Ben Popken, TODAY contributor

Groupon has suspended all gun-related deal promotions, the popular online daily deals company told TODAY on Tuesday.

"All scheduled and current gun-related deals featured on Groupon North America, including shooting ranges, conceal-and-carry and clay shooting, have been placed on hiatus while we review internal standards that shape the deal inventory we feature," Groupon spokesperson Julie Mossler told TODAY. "The category is under review following recent consumer and merchant feedback."

Following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in December that rocked the nation, President Barack Obama has pushed for new gun-control legislation, including reinstating a ban on assault weapons, and tighter background checks. Last week, New York became the first state to enact new gun-control laws following the tragedy that claimed the lives of 20 schoolchildren and six staff.

But Groupon's move, first reported by AOL's DailyFinance, has Second Amendment rights proponents up in arms.?One Texas gun shop owner has taken to Twitter to call for a Groupon boycott, and others have taken up the cry, with numerous retweets, including ones by the Twitter feed for the NRA.

Central Texas Gun Works?owner?Michael Cargill, pictured above, called for the boycott after the daily deals company terminated his concealed-handgun-license training class promotion. That happened just days after Groupon had asked him to increase the number of class slots he was selling,?emails Cargill forwarded to TODAY.?The promotion was so?successful it was in danger of selling out.

The deal was $69 for an initial 10-hour concealed handgun license (CHL) course for one, normally $140, or $129 for two individuals. The course, a requirement before receiving a concealed-carry permit in Texas, covers gun safety and law, verbal incident de-escalation tactics, and shooting-range training. The promotion, started early last week, was set to end on Saturday or after 600 signups, whichever came first. The day after the promotion started, it already had several hundred signups, and Cargill's Groupon account rep contacted him about doubling the number of slots, as it was in danger of selling out. Cargill approved the increase.

Cargill said his Groupon rep told him that Groupon's CEO, Andrew Mason, had a change of heart. He said his rep told him Groupon was shutting the deal down "because of all the issues about gun control by Congress, the president and in the news." The gun-store owner's Groupon rep directed all questions to Groupon's press spokesperson. Mossler declined to comment beyond Groupon's initial statement.

Last year, Cargill ran the same promotion with Groupon. It sold out in four days.

Google Offers, LivingSocial, and DealFind couldn't be reached for comment. In the past Google Offers and Dealfind have promoted?concealed pistol license and weapon certification classes. LivingSocial has also marketed?deals like "AK47s, Rifles and Pistols Followed By 8 Drink Tastings" for $130.

Despite the national conversation about gun control, Cargill says he sees nothing wrong, or dangerous, about teaching more people how to use guns and giving them the training they need to legally carry a concealed handgun.

"If someone's going to commit a crime, they're not going to take the time to take a 10-hour class first," said Cargill.

Source: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/01/22/16642066-groupon-suspends-all-gun-related-daily-deals?lite

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Inside a machine for turning coffee into science

Public release date: 23-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Andreas Neidlinger
JUnQ@uni-mainz.de
49-613-139-21817
Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz

Journal of Unsolved Questions presents 5th issue on 'scientific labor'

In its recently published 5th issue, the Journal of Unsolved Questions (JUnQ) invites readers to take a look behind the doors of researchers' offices and laboratories, presenting "reports from the academic workforce". Researchers from archeology to neurology were invited to reflect upon "Scientific Labor". With this cover topic, JUnQ continues its endeavor to promote a realistic view of academic work.

The actual day-to-day business of producing scientific knowledge is not always about success. Many research projects are unsuccessful stories producing ambiguous or 'null'-results that do not lead to unambiguous conclusions. Current publication practices often neglect this fact, since only positive results and clear conclusions have a chance to get published in scientific journals. JUnQ has set out to change this, gathering null-result research and open problems and offering a platform to communicate projects which just did not work, ambiguous data without exaggeration, and investigations which raise more questions than they answer.

The journal was founded in 2010 by doctoral students of the Graduate School of Excellence "Materials Science in Mainz" (MAINZ) in cooperation with scientists from around Europe. Since then, a total of 25 scientific contributions from various fields of research featuring null-results were published from international scientists. To provide legal stands, the non-profit organization JUnQ e. V. was founded in 2011.

In 2012, JUnQ was awarded the German Prize of Ideas (DeutscherIdeenPreis), which shows the great impact of the journal as well as its ideas of making null-results publishable in an open access community. JUnQ is published biannually as an open access journal.

The 5th issue of JUnQ is available online; a print edition can be obtained through the office of the MAINZ Graduate School of Excellence. Furthermore a promotion is planned for 28 January and 5 February 2013 during lunch time in the Mensa building at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, where printed issues will be available. The next issue will be released on July 1, 2013.

###

JUnQ is looking for null-results and open questions from all academic disciplines. For information on how to contribute, please visit http://junq.info. People interested in journalistic work for the editorial board are welcome to contact the editors under junq@uni-mainz.de.

Current edition: http://junq.info/?p=1486

Further information:
Publisher:
Journal of Unsolved Questions (JUnQ)
c/o Graduate School of Excellence "Materials Science in Mainz"
Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
D 55099 Mainz, GERMANY

Editorial office:
Journal of Unsolved Questions (JUnQ)
Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
Duesbergweg 10-14
D 55128 Mainz, GERMANY

phone +49 6131 39-21817
e-mail: JUnQ@uni-mainz.de
http://junq.info/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/JUNQ-Journal/128139313883206
http://twitter.com/JunQJournal

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 23-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Andreas Neidlinger
JUnQ@uni-mainz.de
49-613-139-21817
Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz

Journal of Unsolved Questions presents 5th issue on 'scientific labor'

In its recently published 5th issue, the Journal of Unsolved Questions (JUnQ) invites readers to take a look behind the doors of researchers' offices and laboratories, presenting "reports from the academic workforce". Researchers from archeology to neurology were invited to reflect upon "Scientific Labor". With this cover topic, JUnQ continues its endeavor to promote a realistic view of academic work.

The actual day-to-day business of producing scientific knowledge is not always about success. Many research projects are unsuccessful stories producing ambiguous or 'null'-results that do not lead to unambiguous conclusions. Current publication practices often neglect this fact, since only positive results and clear conclusions have a chance to get published in scientific journals. JUnQ has set out to change this, gathering null-result research and open problems and offering a platform to communicate projects which just did not work, ambiguous data without exaggeration, and investigations which raise more questions than they answer.

The journal was founded in 2010 by doctoral students of the Graduate School of Excellence "Materials Science in Mainz" (MAINZ) in cooperation with scientists from around Europe. Since then, a total of 25 scientific contributions from various fields of research featuring null-results were published from international scientists. To provide legal stands, the non-profit organization JUnQ e. V. was founded in 2011.

In 2012, JUnQ was awarded the German Prize of Ideas (DeutscherIdeenPreis), which shows the great impact of the journal as well as its ideas of making null-results publishable in an open access community. JUnQ is published biannually as an open access journal.

The 5th issue of JUnQ is available online; a print edition can be obtained through the office of the MAINZ Graduate School of Excellence. Furthermore a promotion is planned for 28 January and 5 February 2013 during lunch time in the Mensa building at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, where printed issues will be available. The next issue will be released on July 1, 2013.

###

JUnQ is looking for null-results and open questions from all academic disciplines. For information on how to contribute, please visit http://junq.info. People interested in journalistic work for the editorial board are welcome to contact the editors under junq@uni-mainz.de.

Current edition: http://junq.info/?p=1486

Further information:
Publisher:
Journal of Unsolved Questions (JUnQ)
c/o Graduate School of Excellence "Materials Science in Mainz"
Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
D 55099 Mainz, GERMANY

Editorial office:
Journal of Unsolved Questions (JUnQ)
Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
Duesbergweg 10-14
D 55128 Mainz, GERMANY

phone +49 6131 39-21817
e-mail: JUnQ@uni-mainz.de
http://junq.info/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/JUNQ-Journal/128139313883206
http://twitter.com/JunQJournal

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/jgum-iam012313.php

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A Brief History of Stunt Scootering | Xtremesport

Although frequently mocked, the freestyle scootering market is seriously holding its own in skateparks across the globe.

Skateboarders and BMXers who were quick to label scootering as fad have been pretty much forced to eat their words. Scooter kids who were new to the scene in 2001 have grown into ferocious adults, competing in established competitions, gaining lucrative sponsorships and ultimately turning the hobby into a recognised extreme sport and profession.

But where did it all begin?

Scooters themselves are not a new invention. Wooden antiques have been found that easily date back 100 years, but turning the humble scooter from a toy into a sport was a far more recent affair.

In 1996, Micro introduced folding scooters to the market. They turned into an international craze, providing a popular commuter tool in crowded cities such as Tokyo, as well as toys for kids. Their lightweight frames made them perfect for jumps, so it wasn?t long before extreme skaters started to use them for tricks. To fill the need for stronger scooters to withstand bigger stunts, the ?pro? scooter market was born, with a host of brands such as Madd Gear, Razor and Grit competing to provide the best models for the budding sport.

Stunt scooters have been engineered over time to take a beating at the skatepark and still live to tell the tale. Crucial changes to the design mark the difference between a toy and a piece of extreme sports equipment, so here are the basics?

Scooter decks are your ride?s backbone, so it?s really important that they?re strong enough to provide decent support. Stunt scooter decks will come as a one or two-piece part (two-piece decks have the deck and head tube bolted together at the bottom, as opposed to being a single piece which is welded together, or a single mould). Less separate parts also mean less weak spots where breakages can occur, so you see the logic. Single and two-piece decks are strong, but like any piece of equipment, can break if you don?t take care of it, so don?t expect miracles from any piece of hardware!

Scooter handlebars do not fold on stunt models. Again, the bend provided a weak spot that wasn?t desirable, so it made sense to make handlebars fixed and one piece for strength. The majority of bars of this type are made of 4130 Chromoly or 6061 aluminium, and are pretty strong and lightweight, depending on the brand. Usually, a handlebar designed for extreme use will be welded and possibly gusseted to make it robust without being unnecessarily heavy.

High-end forks tend to now be threadless. This allows the scooter to have a compression system, which will hold the scooter bars to the fork and wheel with greater power and stability. Threaded forks, as seen on cheaper models, tend to wobble more and not be as strong.

Traditionally, wheels for scooter would have plastic cores with a urethane outer. However, these often snapped in the centre, so metal core wheels came into production as an alternative with greater brawn. Commonly, these are made of double machined aluminium and double urethane tyres.

Alongside the basic components that now define a reliable stunt scooter, there?s a host of accessories available, too. Stunt pegs, for example, are rarely sold with pre-built scooter setups, but are an essential part of the complete package. Attached to the axle bolts, they help the rider grind against smooth surfaces, as opposed to using the bottom of the deck itself (and potentially ruining it).

It wouldn?t be right to have an extreme scooter market this lux without having some dope scooter riders to make the most of it. Thanks to a few years of practice on quality setups, there?s plenty people turning scootering into a fully-fledged and respected action sport.

Tricks can be as simple as bunny-hopping on a back wheel or jumping off small ramps at the skatepark. There?s a whole other level of scootering, though, that?s not for the faint-hearted or unskilled. Dakota Schuetz, for example, recently landed himself in the Guinness Book of World Records for completing 15 backflips in one minute. Sponsored by established brand Lucky, Schuetz is a fine example of a sportsman making ends meet and more by riding scooters professionally and hitting new heights. With scootering now being accepted as part of long-established extreme sports events such as X Games, it?s a new era for the recreation, and it just keeps getting bigger.

Sponsored scooter teams in general are making their mark across the globe, with thousands of young people trying desperately to perfect their skills and be exposed enough to earn a coveted place. Seldom few are able to make the grade (especially with the popularity of scootering pushing the bar even higher), but those who do are rewarded with fame and adoration by their peers, let alone the world travel and other
generous perks.

Madd Gear arguably sponsors the most famous bunch of pros on the scene, with their riders, such as Terry Price, reaching celebrity status amongst its followers. With teams in the US, UK, EU and Australia, their popularity spans the globe and their trademark skull logo can be seen in pretty much any skate shop that you care to visit. Even boasting an enviable women?s team (which is still pretty rare in the sport), they?re the trailblazers of scootering and show no sign of slowing down.

With scooters invading every street, skatepark and school playground, they are fast becoming one of the most popular extreme sports of the moment, even overturning firm favourites like skateboarding and BMXing. Not bad for a supposed ?fad?, there?s really no telling how far scootering will go? But we?re predicting that it?s not nearly over yet.

Photo Credit: Connor Tarter via Compfight cc

Gavin Kerrigan

??

Source: http://xtremesport4u.com/extreme-land-sports/boarding/scooters/history-stunt-scootering/

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Twitter Updates Embedded Tweets To Include More Content, Context, Speed And Ease Of Use

Twitter didn’t have the best day yesterday, in fact, it hasn’t had the best week when it comes to keeping its service running without issues. Today’s announcement might explain a little bit about why the site has been acting oddly. Whenever a change happens to one of Twitter’s products, it’s usually tipped off by some sort of issues introduced with the new code leading up to its launch. The company announced today that it has tweaked its embeddable tweets product to include more content. Why would you embed tweets? Well, the company frowns upon screenshots, especially when you’re including a tweet in a post. In addition to embeddable tweets, Twitter also serves up widgets of streams, which they launched last September. Here’s an example of an embedded tweet: Today, we?re introducing several enhancements that make embedded Tweets more engaging, useful and fast: More content and context. Embedded Tweets display photos, videos, article summaries and other content shared in a Tweet, just like you see on twitter.com. You can also view retweet and favorite counts to better understand engagement, and we?ve made some tweaks to the design so that embedded Tweets are easier to read. Faster loading. You?ll see Embedded Tweets show up faster on the sites you visit. Embed with ease. It?s now even easier to embed a Tweet on your own website. Just click the “More” button in any Tweet on twitter.com, and then select ?Embed this Tweet? to enrich your blog posts or pages. You can do the same on TweetDeck. To embed a tweet, all you have to do is grab the code that Twitter supplies you by clicking “more” when you’re on the landing page of the tweet, and drop it into your page or blog post. It’s difficult to serve up content on other people’s sites, as you don’t know the conditions of their web servers and page speeds. This definitely has something to do with Twitter’s slowness over the past few months. For example, if the largest website in the world were to embed just about any tweet, that’s a load that Twitter is serving up. This definitely isn’t trivial. By preserving the original content, links and source of a Tweet, media outlets can do a better job at sourcing news stories from Twitter. I’ve seen doctored screenshots in the past, which were passed off as original tweets. Without a link back to the

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/cEWrcdyoF0w/

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